The anniversary finds the Balkan country still deeply divided, power shared between Serbs, Croats and Muslims in a single state ruled by ethnic quotas and united by the weakest of central governments.

Amel Emric / AP

City officials have lined up 11,541 red chairs arranged in 825 rows along the main street that now looks like a red river representing the 11,541 Sarajevans who were killed during the siege.

"The Sarajevo Red Line is in fact the line of blood that ran down the streets of Sarajevo from April 6, 1992 until 1995," Sarajevo mayor Alija Behmen said of the long line of chairs through the center of the capital.

On Thursday, cellist Vedran Smailovic, who became an icon of artistic defiance when he played on a central Sarajevo street as the city was shelled, played again for the first time in his hometown since he left in 1993. Read the full story.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Cellist Vedran Smajlovic addresses the auditorium before playing at one of the ceremonies being held to mark the 20th anniversary of the start of the siege of Sarajevo, on April 5, 2012.